Elton Smith & Chris Holley, Pioneer Natural Resources Inc. & Scott Long, Flexbar Inc.
In the beginning of this project the primary goal was to compare IPC and Bare tubing and discern which was more effective in lowering tubing failures and which was more economical. In this project, a sample of 62 wells was examined from the Sprabeny area as well as an additional 152 wells from the Preston Spraberry Unit "Best Practices" program. All wells were evaluated from January of 1996 to July of 2002. The question in concern was if IPC should be part of the optimizing process. During the research for the answer to this question it became evident that more conclusions could be drawn from the information gathered than was originally expected. Not only was the IPC question to be answered but the effects of other optimization techniques were seen as well. In this report, one will see the final decision on the effectiveness of IPC as well as the parameters needed for it to be effective. One will also see the benefits of Sinkerbars and Pump off Controllers (POC).